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"Hey Coach," Leslie McDonald says as nearly two dozen Tar
Heel basketball players mill around on the floor of the Smith Center, "are we
playing with our ball or their ball?"

The
recipient of his question is Roy Williams, who is standing near the sideline
observing the collection of talent for the first edition of the 2013 camp game
at his eponymous basketball camp. This particular game, pitting the current
players against any Tar Heel alumni players who happen to be in Chapel Hill, is
one of the highlights of this week's camp, which runs from Sunday through
Thursday.

The
equipment question might seem simple, but it's not. College players want to
play with the college ball. Pro players want to play with the pro ball. There's
a difference, and because the players involved care a little more than you would think about what
might appear to be a simple pickup game, the choice of
ball matters.

Williams
quickly settles the dispute.

"We're
playing with our ball," he says. "It's our gym."

And that's
how an alumni team stocked with three current NBA players (Kendall Marshall,
John Henson, Ed Davis), six other former national champions (Deon Thompson,
Marcus Ginyard, Quentin Thomas, Mike Copeland, David Noel, Reyshawn Terry and
Jawad Williams) and one of the program's all-time leading three-point shooters
(Shammond Williams) came to be the road team in a gymnasium where they've
played a major role in hanging some very important banners.

This game,
played before approximately 700 campers and any of their parents who can get
off work for the rare chance at watching nearly two decades of Tar Heel
basketball history, has quietly been an important part of setting the tone for
the Roy Williams era. At the very first camp game of his tenure during the
summer of 2003, the current team took a desultory loss. Once word reached the
head coach, he pointedly informed his new players that if they were going to
play a game--even an exhibition pickup game in front of a group of kids, some of
whom who weren't old enough to remember when the players involved actually wore
the argyle jerseys--they were expected to compete.

The result
of his lecture was a much better effort in the summer's second camp game (there
are two sessions of camp and two separate camp games), and a pattern being
established of the coach demanding that his players compete to the best of
their ability any time they took the floor.

That year,
players might have thought they could coast because NCAA rules prohibited the
coaching staff from observing the offseason games. Since then, NCAA rules changes
have permitted two hours of summer instruction, and the staff is choosing to
use this week's game as their two hours--which means they can watch.

Williams
finishes his traditional afternoon address to the campers by telling them that
he has high expectations for the game they are about to watch. "All of these
guys will play Carolina Basketball," he says over the PA microphone. "They will
move the ball, they will get good shots, and they will do the things we've
talked about at camp this week."

That's a
little more pressure than your typical have-to-win-by-two pickup game. This
game is played in two halves, with halftime coming when the first team reaches
35. The veterans--or, depending on who is telling the story, "the old guys"--are
undeniably coasting in the first half, expending the minimum amount of effort
necessary to keep the game close. The current team, meanwhile, plays about as
close to its potential as it can without the services of James Michael McAdoo,
P.J. Hairston and Joel James, all of whom sit out the game for precautionary
health reasons or other commitments.

Desmond
Hubert slams home a dunk to take the game to halftime with the current team
leading, 36-31. As soon as the 60-second halftime break is over, the intensity
of the game changes. Spurred by Copeland's constant shouts of, "Yeahhhhhhh!"
(even more effective when echoed by seemingly every camper in his group), the
alums start cutting into the deficit and have soon taken the lead.

It's not
hard to see why--they can make plays such as Marshall whipping the ball
one-handed crosscourt to Jawad Williams for a three-pointer, or Henson posting
up Hubert and finishing with that familiar half-hook.

Marcus
Paige helps keep the current team closer than you might have expected given
that they're missing three rotation players, and even punctuates his second
half with a pretty driving, arching bank shot over Henson. But when Ginyard
hits a three-pointer, it's 69-63 in favor of the former players.

After a
miss, the alums try to win the game with Marshall backing Paige down into the
paint, but Paige stays strong--Jonas Sahratian would be proud--and forces a miss.
But the alums simply have too much firepower, and Shammond Williams swishes a
three-pointer for a 72-66 win.

The two
squads gather for a complete team photo. Now that the game is over, there's
less friendly trash talk than there was before. But everyone involved also has
learned from past games that it's better to save any grand pronouncements until
later--there's another camp game next week.